The world had gone silent.
Not the silence of peace — but the hollow, suffocating kind that follows death.
Ren's body still smoked where the abyssal lightning had torn through him, his once-bright eyes now dim, staring at nothing. The katana that had been his soul lay shattered beside him, fragments scattered like broken memories across the charred ground.
Bolt stood frozen. The screams, the clash of battle, the roars of the A-rank abyssal beasts — all of it faded into the background hum of a world that no longer made sense. His chest heaved, but breath refused to come. His lightning, once fierce and wild, now crackled weakly around him, as if mourning too.
He died for me…
The thought stabbed deeper than any blade.
Kairos's voice slithered through the heavy air, cold and merciless. "Pathetic. Even with all that power, you can't protect those who follow you." He stepped through the swirling mist, abyssal lightning dancing along his arm — the same arm that had ended Ren. "You call yourself the Elemental Warborn, but you're nothing but a frightened boy playing hero."
"Shut… up." Bolt's voice trembled, barely audible.
Kairos tilted his head mockingly. "What was his name again? Ren? He died for nothing. Just another insect crushed beneath the weight of reality."
"SHUT UP!" Bolt roared, his scream tearing the air apart.
The storm erupted from him in a violent surge, the ground fracturing beneath his feet. Rage boiled in his veins, grief flooding every corner of his soul. Lightning screamed from the heavens, striking the earth again and again in furious arcs.
Kairos only smirked. "Show me, Bolt. Show me if your rage can reach me."
They clashed — and the heavens trembled.
Bolt launched forward, lightning cloaking his body, fists striking with explosive force. Kairos met him with abyssal power, their collision shaking the ruins of Apex Academy and sending shockwaves through the battlefield. The impact split the air with a thunderous boom, lightning and abyss intertwining in a chaotic storm.
But even enraged, Bolt was still slower.
Kairos ducked beneath a bolt of condensed lightning, his palm slamming into Bolt's chest. Abyssal energy exploded outward, hurling him through several broken pillars before he crashed to the ground, coughing blood.
"Too weak," Kairos said coldly, approaching step by step. "Too slow. Too human."
All around them, Celestial Tempest fought desperately against the unending tide of A-rank abyssal beasts. Akane screamed as flames roared from her hands, burning dozens, yet more replaced them. Sylva struggled to bind the monsters with earth and roots that the abyss instantly rotted. Valea's light barely pierced the shadows. Damian and Kaori fought back-to-back, but exhaustion crept into their every motion.
And above it all — Ren's body lay still.
"Bolt!" Akane shouted from across the battlefield. "Get up! We can't hold them much longer!"
But he didn't move. He stared at the ground, trembling, lightning crackling feebly around his hands.
I promised I'd protect them…
I swore I'd never let anyone fall again…
And yet… I let him die.
Ren's last words burned in his mind, searing themselves into his soul:
"The longer you walk this path, the more you see — strength was never about crushing enemies, but carrying hope when all hope is gone.
In this cruel world, pain will break our bodies and time will erase our names… but ideals, if we die for them, will outlive eternity.
Even the smallest light defies an endless night — and that defiance is what makes us human.
So if my end means your rise, Bolt… then let my death be the spark that sets the heavens ablaze.
This world was never kind… but that's why we must become the kindness it lacks."
The words echoed over and over until they became more than memory — they became purpose.
Something inside Bolt cracked.
It wasn't the kind of breaking that destroyed — it was the kind that unleashed.
The lightning around him surged, no longer trembling but roaring. His grief did not fade, but transformed — from sorrow into rage, from rage into resolve, from resolve into power.
The skies darkened. The storm answered.
Kairos paused mid-step, his grin faltering as the ground beneath Bolt began to fracture and rise. Arcs of lightning spread outward in spirals, fusing with gusts of wind, swirling water, tongues of flame, and shards of ice. The elements did not clash — they danced, drawn together by a will strong enough to command them all.
"Impossible…" Kairos whispered, his abyss flaring instinctively. "This shouldn't be possible."
Bolt rose to his feet slowly, eyes glowing like twin storms, his aura towering and radiant. His voice was calm now, but beneath it simmered a wrath older than the storm itself.
"You're right, Kairos. I am human. And humans… break."
The air exploded as his power skyrocketed, pushing past its old boundaries. His storm pulsed once — twice — and then shattered the ceiling that had held it back.
25% Mastery.
The moment it happened, the battlefield itself seemed to kneel.
Water gathered from the air and earth, swirling around his arms. Flames licked his shoulders, ice formed a halo behind him, wind howled beneath his feet, and lightning danced like divine fire across his skin. Bolt raised his hand, and the elements obeyed, bending and merging under his will.
Every beast on the battlefield froze. Even Kairos's abyss recoiled, sensing the surge of a force it had not felt in millennia.
"This storm…" Kairos whispered, narrowing his eyes. "This is what the God of War chose."
Bolt looked up at the storm raging above, then at Ren's broken blade lying beside his fallen body. He bent down, lifting the shattered sword with trembling hands. Lightning surged into the fragments, fusing them together, reshaping and reforging them. Metal sang as it reformed, blade stretching into a single, flawless katana that pulsed with thunderous energy.
He held it in front of him, lightning crackling along the edge.
"From this moment on," Bolt murmured, "you are no longer a broken blade… You are Raiketsu — the storm that carries his will."
He turned to face Kairos, his aura towering, grief and fury shaping his every breath. "And I am no longer fighting for myself. I'm fighting for the one who believed… even when I didn't."
Kairos grinned, the thrill of battle igniting in his abyssal eyes. "Then stop talking and show me."
The air vanished between them as both shot forward — and the world detonated.
Their clash was no longer a mere fight. It was war.
Kairos swung his arm, abyssal lightning spiraling into a spear of annihilation. Bolt met it head-on, his newly forged Raiketsu cleaving through the darkness with a roar of thunder. The resulting explosion flattened everything within a hundred meters, vaporizing the ground and hurling beasts into the air.
Kairos laughed, even as blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. "YES! This is what I wanted! The Elemental Warborn, unchained!"
Bolt didn't respond. His eyes burned with purpose as he raised Raiketsu, gathering power far beyond anything he'd ever summoned.
"Lightning Tiger!" he roared.
The sky itself split open as a colossal tiger made entirely of storm-born lightning descended from above, its roar shaking the heavens. It lunged, jaws crackling with elemental fury, colliding with Kairos in a cataclysmic blast that turned night into blinding day. Abyssal lightning and elemental storm tore at each other, neither yielding, neither surrendering.
Kairos roared back, abyssal energy bursting from his core, meeting the elemental beast with overwhelming force. The impact shattered mountains in the distance, carved craters into the earth, and split the clouds as far as the eye could see.
And yet — neither side relented.
Below, Celestial Tempest watched in awe and fear. Akane fell to her knees, tears streaming as she whispered, "Ren… he's doing it. He's fighting for you."
Sylva wiped blood from her lips, watching the storm rage. "This… this is what it means to be Warborn."
The battle only grew fiercer. Every strike Bolt unleashed carried the weight of Ren's sacrifice. Every roar of Kairos's abyss was met with a defiant storm. Element met void, lightning met shadow, and the world itself buckled under their might.
But for all his newfound power, Bolt knew one thing — Kairos was still stronger.
He hadn't seen the Abyssal Warborn's full strength yet. Not even close.
Kairos staggered back from a blow, panting — and smiling. "Good… Very good. But tell me, Bolt…" His grin widened into something monstrous. "…What will you do when even this isn't enough?"
The abyss behind him pulsed — and the sky turned black.
Dozens more A-rank abyssal beasts erupted from the rifts, pouring into the battlefield with earth-shaking roars. Celestial Tempest cried out in horror as the tide surged again, even stronger, even hungrier.
And Bolt… Bolt's grip tightened on Raiketsu.
He wasn't backing down.
Not now. Not ever.
"For Ren," he whispered, lightning blazing around him. "For all of them. I will become the storm that ends this night."
The battlefield erupted once more — and above it all, Bolt and Kairos collided in a storm that would shake the foundations of the world.